Having successfully driven the Oodnadatta track we have felt a bit more confident about our overland driving ability and so decided that rather than driving up the main road and joining onto the Plenty hwy we could head directly east along the McDonnell ranges and then take a “short cut” along the Binns track. As always this would depend on rain and road conditions so the first leg of this new route involved driving along bitumen road 85km due east to a station turned resort called Ross River.
The drive itself was pretty spectacular and along the way we got to stop a couple of times and have a couple of walks up some pretty beautiful gorges and gaps in the range.
The campsite itself was nicely situated too and the main building was almost entirely constructed out of left over pieces from the Ghan railway after it stopped being used. The place had a nice relaxed feel to it and gave us great access to a dry river bed (The Ross River) where we could take Griff for some lovely walks off the lead which was nice after the last few stops.
N’Dhala gorge is the main attraction near Ross River and within the gorge are approximately 6000 of petroglyphs carved into stones by the Aboriginal people. Some date back as far as 10,000 years ago while others a mere 2,000. We didn’t get to see them all but saw plenty as we meandered through the gorge. They were pretty impressive and it was incredible to think how old they were but unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of information to explain what we were looking at. I feel that like all the artwork we see it would be nice to have the explanations of what the symbols are as that would definitely increase my understanding and appreciation. Still that might be just me?
It was a quick 2 night stop and while we could have stayed longer it was time to move on and continue our adventure along the Binns track and back towards Queensland. T